The First 20
by PostModerns
Summary: One of those stereotypical hundred-theme challenges-- these are the first twenty. All hundred are going to revolve around Dally and Johnny.


Introduction

**Introduction**

Johnny Cade was scared to death when he and Dally were first introduced, and sometimes he isn't sure if that has changed—he loves him, but sometimes he's afraid of him. Not that Dally knows that; it'll kill Dally if he knows that.

**Love  
**Dally doesn't know if he loves Johnny Cade or not. Sometimes that kid's just too damn irritating—that damn naiveté and that damn way he has of looking at him with those big damn puppy eyes. Who the hell is he kidding?

**Light  
**Before, back before Dally had saved him, Johnny wouldn't let him touch him in the light. He still won't, sometimes, as a reflex; when Dally reaches for him in the sunlight, Johnny pulls away, a reflection of the days when he'd been terrified of Dally seeing the bruises.

**Dark  
**Johnny is light, Dallas is dark—not outside, inside. Neither of them know how this works and neither of them really care all that much; all they know is that they balance each other out, and that's enough for them.

**Rot  
**Johnny is afraid, sometimes, that Dally will simply waste away and rot if he can't get what he needs—out of Tucson, away from the Socs and the greasers and the classes. And then Dally pulls him close and mumbles 'I love you' in Johnny's ear, and he forgets completely, which is just what Dally wants.

**Break  
**"Shit," Dally says, looking at the gash across Johnny's cheekbone, "shit," and his voice breaks. Johnny has never heard that before, and that scares him worse than anything.

**Heaven  
**Dallas knows that he's never going to get into heaven, but he thinks, laying next to Johnny in the grass in the lot, neither of them talking, just laying there, that this is good enough.

**Away  
**Johnny jerks away from Dallas' outstretched hand and the older boy jerks it back like it's been burned. "Don't do that," he says, and Johnny's eyes widen. "I—I ain't gonna hurt you."

**Cut  
**"Do you like it?" Dally asks ruefully, rubbing the back of his neck and staring into the mirror at his new, brutally short hair cut. A pair of thin, sinewy arms snake around his waist and he feels lips on the back of his neck. "It doesn't matter to me," Johnny murmurs, laying his chin on Dally's shoulder. "I love you no matter what your damn hair looks like and you know it."

**Breathe  
**"Breathe," Dally is whispering, running his hand over Johnny's thin, shaking back, trying not to hear the boy's violent sobs. "Just breathe, Johnnycakes, it's alright..."

**Memory  
**"That's _you_?" Dally asks, staring at the tiny picture in Johnny's hand, of a little bitty dark-skinned baby, the only memory Johnny brought with him from home. "Yep," Johnny says, blushing, and Dally kisses him, quick and gentle. "You're cute and you know it."

**Insanity  
**Johnny hates it when Dally wants to go hunt a rumble or a fistfight with the Shephard gang; he thinks that insanity runs in that family and he hates Dallas getting involved. But Dally only ever kisses him and tells him that he'll be fine—so when Dally comes home with a broken nose, Johnny is perfectly happy to say 'I told you so'.

**Misfortune  
**Dally can tell by the look in Johnny's eyes that he's about to get punched in the mouth: he had the misfortune to lose about a hundred bucks in a poker game between himself, Two-Bit and Steve.

**Smile**

Dallas is kissing Johnny, little by little—the corner of his lips, the top, the bottom, the spot just under the bottom: he can tell by the way Johnny's lips feel that he's smiling, and he has to smile himself.

**Silence**

There is never silence in their little apartment, between music and running water and Dallas's snores and their soft combined moans.

**Spit  
**"Damn it," Johnny says, dabbing at Dallas's temple with a wet rag; Dallas spits blood. "Damn it, damn it," he says again, using anger to mask his fear.

**Blood**

"I love you," Dallas whispers, watching Johnny breathe: they are in a cage made of sunrays on the bed and tangled sheets. His arm is around his boyfriend's shoulders and he can see a bruise above his elbow and beads that had been blood above it.**  
**

**Under  
**Johnny sleeps under the sheets, Dally on top, but one of the older man's arms always manages to find its way around Johnny's skinny shoulders in the night.

**Gray**

Dallas is so beautiful when he's asleep, Johnny thinks, looking at him in the sunlight; he is relaxed for once. The only problem is that he can't see those gorgeous blue-gray eyes.

**Fortitude**

Johnny is so small and timid but he will never be weak, Dally decides one night. There's a word he's never known the meaning of before until he sees Johnny cleaning himself up at the Curtis' house and returning to his own: fortitude. It means courage and strength. And Johnny is nothing if not courageous and strong.


End file.
